Devotional Short Note to Psalm 134: One
of the most important parts of any Psalm is to carefully weigh the word Zion
and what it really means. In this Psalm the Lord will bless out of Zion
(134:3a). Zion is where the Lord is, “He that made heaven and earth”. Judaism
thinks it is Jerusalem the Old City near the Temple Mount. However, careful
considerations need to be made. Look at the logic of the psalm. The
servants all should bless the Lord (134:1b). Where are these servants? “That
[Phoenician relative pronoun] stand in the house of the Lord. The blessings
ones are in the Lord’s house. However, the Lord is going to bless “from Zion”
so that Zion is not the Lord’s House mentioned here. If they are standing in
Zion which is according to Judaism under the umbrella of Zion then why should
the blessing come “from Zion”? If Zion is the Lord’s House then the preposition
is superfluous. Zion is even superfluous since that is where the servants are
all standing. What is the reality check here? Zion is heavenly Zion and not
earthly Zion. God’s dwelling place in heaven is Zion. That is where the
Sanctuary in Heaven is and that is from where the blessing would come. The time this happens is in the night “in
the night” (134:1c). Calvin translated “nightly” and Edwards read it as “every
night”. Plumer (1872) translated it “by night”. In Luke 2:37 it is said about
Anna the prophetess that she “departed not from the temple, but served God with
fasting and praying night and day”. Devotion different than ordination, knows
no gender. Middle Age Rabbi Kimchi says that holy men in the middle of the
night rose and went to the temple to pray. Ellen White says that “When we
permit our communion with God to be broken, our defense is departed from us”. “Lift up your hands [there is no ‘to’ in
the original] holy one [gadosh, vowels are inventions in later centuries and
minor guides not major standards for meaning]” (134:2a). Judaism wants to make
the process “to” in the direction of the Holy of Holies but there is no
preposition “to” here? For this reason it may mean a person if one should
change the vowels but not the consonants. It is permissible in conservative
interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures to change the vowels but not the
consonants. Why? Originally until long after the time of Jesus, all the Hebrew
texts were only written with consonants as one can still see in the Dead Sea
Scrolls. It was also the position of William F. Albright. Plumer translated it as
“with holiness” but again, there is no preposition. Who is the “holy one”? Oesterley
suggested that it is the High Priest in the sanctuary. It is not a bad idea
since it is a single person here that is to lift up the hands and bless the
Lord (134:2a-b). There are two groups of persons involved here: many servants
that is blessing the Lord without raising the hands and the holy one [high
priest presumably] who lift his hands to bless the Lord. When this happens from Zion will come
the blessing from the Lord. When we worship God in earthly houses of the Lord
then the blessing of Jesus comes to us from the heavenly Sanctuary where
heavenly Zion is.